Nos pires amis 2

I genuinely enjoyed the 2021 movie "Vacation Friends", and when I had the chance to sit down and watch the 2023 sequel "Vacation Friends 2", of course I did so.

However, I have to say that writer and director Clay Tarver delivered a lukewarm sequel here. The script and storyline for "Vacation Friends 2" was generally devoid of the funny and outrageous situations that were in the first movie. And the script felt rather mundane and bland, and I was hardly brought to laughter throughout the course of the 106 minutes that the movie ran for.

The acting performances in "Vacation Friends 2" were fair, and it was nice to see John Cena, Lil Rel Howery, Meredith Hagner and Yvonne Orji return to reprise their characters in the sequel. It was really good to see Steve Buscemi in the movie, though his talent was just not utilized to any great accomplishment in "Vacation Friends 2", which was a shame. And it was certainly also nice to see Carlos Santos on the cast list.

So I found "Vacation Friends 2" to be somewhat of a disappointing viewing experience. And it is hardly a movie that I will be picking up a second time, simply because it was lacking the comedy appeal of the 2021 movie.

My rating of "Vacation Friends 2" lands on a very bland five out of ten stars.

The first Vacation Friends was a surprisingly hilarious fun blast full of actual laugh out loud moments, and I had rated that one an 8/10. So considering it's the same director, writers and cast, I expected it to be pretty close to as good as the first one, but wow what a let down this was.

The story was cliched, predictable, sappy, convoluted nonsense, and it was all over the place. The directing was sub par and underwhelming. And as much as Cena tried his best with the terrible material he had this time around, even he nor the addition of Steve Buscemi couldn't save this mess. Unlike the first film, there were zero actual laugh out loud moments, there were barely any smiles, but mostly eyerolls and cringe at pretty much every funny part being a huge miss and mostly infantile humor. As much as I'm a fan of Cena and Buscemi, I just can't recommend wasting 105 minutes watching this mess just to see them.

I love John Cena and typically love his movies. Had high hopes for this movie. What a let down! The best parts are the scenery. Having been to Oahu myself I know how beautiful it is. But the comedy is severely lacking. I laughed at a few things but mostly it wasn't funny. I didn't love the fist Vacation Friends movie and considering the reviews I hoped they learned from it and this one would be better.

Lazy writing! Could have been so much better. My 6 year old niece could have done a better job at making it funny. They should have got the writers from blockers to help. That was top notch! John please make better choices for us all!

The first Vacation Friends was a pretty mediocre comedy, but there were a few decent laughs. This sequel really doesn't bring much new to the table and the cast, sans Cena, is just not very funny. Cena is by far the highlight as he is the only one who really displays any real charisma, but he cannot do much to offset this predictable, boring story.

It's standard father-in-law and "win over the tough exec" fare. Everything is quite lazy with a lack of really any creative spark to speak for. Hulu's original movies from 20th Century films are hit or miss to say the least, and this is without a doubt a miss.

I really enjoyed the first Vacation Friends movie. There were a lot of laughs and the premise was a good one. The sequel is the complete opposite and is just so boring. The laughs do not land in this one and the script is all over the place. I think this film could have benefited with more time in developement instead of just rushing it out to audiences. I probably really only laughed 2-3x throughout the whole movie. That's a problem especially since this movie is supposed to be a comedy. Vacation Friends 2 reminded me of that cheap straight to dvd film. Vacation Friends gets a low 3 stars out of 10. Skip this one and just watch the original.